Thanks due to all those who have mailed in already about this subject and no need for others to do so otherwise. With the greatest respect for kind readers, this is exactly the type of story that I don't usually post about because there's little point when 3500 other news sources will do it as well. Anyway and if only to head off other mailers at the pass (bless you all), for those interested in the horse's mouth here's the unfiltered story (the way I like 'em):

One get caughts up in the ebb and the flow, the daily gossip and jabbering, the fight for a dollar. A manner of things that, when you're inside and focussed and fixated, seem to be all-important. And then, all of a moment, you open up another junior mining company press release, catch yourself in a mirror and see the absolute unimportance of it all. You do this because suddenly something happens to people you've never met, something devastating and heartbreaking. And you just happen to be two nights into a three night roadtrip and the meetings you've done and will do, the friends you've caught up with all pale beside the thought of your spouse and children at home.

So do yourself and the people around you a large favour; do something about it right now. Put aside that everso everso important work you're working on right now. Go over to your husband right now, phone your wife right now, pick up your kids and give them a massive hug right now, pay a surprise visit to your parents right now, text your best friends right now, e-mail your brother right now, knock on your sister's door right now. Tell them you love them, get things in focus, do it for them and for you. Carpe diem.

BEAR CREEK EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES OVER THE LOSS OF KAREN SWARTHOUT

VANCOUVER, June 30, 2011 /CNW/ - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM / BVL: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is deeply saddened to learn of the accidental death of Karen Swarthout, the wife of Chief Executive Officer Andrew Swarthout, in Tucson, Arizona. The Company would like to express its sincere sympathy on behalf of the entire team at Bear Creek Mining.

Catherine McLeod-Seltzer Bear Creek Mining Chairman stated, "We are sending Andy our heartfelt condolences during this difficult time. Karen was a remarkable woman in many ways. Knowing her personally as I did for many years, I am well aware of the difference she made in the lives of many people, both here in the Company, and in Andy's private life. She will be missed by all of us."

Ms. McLeod-Seltzer continued "We are confident in the strength and depth of both our senior management team and staff and all are stepping in during this difficult time to ensure normal continuity of the business. In addition, our very experienced Board of Directors have all made themselves available to assist Bear Creek management and staff as well as to offer Andy all the emotional support we can. Bear Creek is a strong company with world class projects as well as extraordinary people of great depth. Our hearts go out to Andy and their families."

If you need to know more, find the IKN coverage of this scam here, here, here and here. Hopefully, we've saved at least one greenhorn from losing their money, but of you were even considering this stock at some point as a trade, do yourself a very large favour and stay away from junior mining forever. It isn't for you, that's a guarantee from somebody who knows how many bullshitters and sharks are waiting for you next time. DYODD, dude.

I've been meaning to highlightthis blog, called "My Own Market Narrative", for a while. Maybe most interesting to regular IKN (and biiwii) readers, it's run by some scallywag with more money than sense that's recently fallen in love with junior mining trading and actually thinks your humble scribe knows what he's talking about. An interesting antidote to something or other...I just need to find out what the poison is.

You never know when a criminal scam such as the one being run by the scumbag Paul Luna Belfiore is going to flip the switch and turn the pump into the dump, but as Portage Resources (POTG.pk) passed $1 today the chances were getting higher. Sure enough, Luna decided he'd pushed it as far as possible and is now dumping part of his 75% holding on the unwary and unsuspecting.

Freakin SEC should have closed this stock down already, where are you guys?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Posting won't be at zero for the next three days, but it may be sporadic as your humble scribe has an aeroplane or two to ride, a date or five to attend and a friend or three with whom to meet and enjoy a glass of wine (or hell's bells, maybe even two glasses). Anyway, for now here's a sliver of part 3 chapter 5 to chew over:

"They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there--and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see."

PolRisk dudes Eurasia Group has just published its note on how the upcoming Humala government is shaping. Read it through but I'll say two things here.

1) I agree with this good analysis

2) Peru exposed companies are about to rebound.

Read on, kind lector...

PERU: Roadmap for the early Humala administration28 June 2011 01:28 PM EDT

President-elect Ollanta Humala will soon appoint moderate figures for key economic and political posts in his administration, and that will be an important signal that he will not pursue radical policies. Nevertheless, Humala may soon have to face a trade-off between his fundamental goals of pursuing change while maintaining macroeconomic stability. During his first months in office, he will announce measures that will increase spending, such as an expansion of social programs. But he will probably increase spending gradually and seek to keep it within the parameters of Peru's fiscal responsibility law, at least in the near to medium term. Nevertheless, Humala's popularity looks set to drop during his first year in office due to high expectations of change among the electorate and the challenges he will face in delivering on campaign promises. This will increase political pressure on Humala, generating more incentives to pursue an expansive fiscal policy and take measures that could worsen the environment for investment.

Ollanta Humala will begin his administration by signaling that he will pursue relatively moderate policies, and by reaffirming his commitment to macroeconomic stability, a market economy and the rule of law. Such moderation is probably sincere and will be a function of several factors. First, he believes that maintaining macroeconomic stability and attracting private investment are both prerequisites for the generation of the conditions needed to achieve his social and economic goals. Second, he is well aware that most voters prefer moderate change over radical change. According to a recent Ipsos/Apoyo poll released on 16 June, 61% of voters think that Humala's government should be like that of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, while only 11% said it should be like that of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Third, he will need the technical expertise and political support of centrist political forces in congress where his coalition won only 36% of seats (particularly from former president Alejandro Toledo's group) to implement policy.

Humala's key advisors will be moderate

One important signpost of policy direction under Humala will be the appointments for key cabinet posts. He is likely to announce as early as this week moderate and reasonably respected figures. His transition team, led by Vice-president Marisol Espinoza, provides some hints on who will be his most influential advisors. Kurt Burneo, who was Alejandro Toledo's main economic advisor and became the main voice on economic matters in Humala's second-round campaign, will lead the economic team with the help of Oscar Dancourt and Felix Jimenez, who will oversee financial and budget issues, respectively. Burneo looks like the strongest candidate to head the Ministry of Finance. He has experience in office and is generally perceived as a moderate, but also believes that the state should play a larger role in the economy and invest more in social programs, a point of view which helped him win Humala's trust. In an interview over the weekend, Espinoza stated that the minister of finance would be from her party, but this doesn't seem to exclude Burneo, who has been working closely with Humala since the beginning of the second round campaign. In fact, Humala stated yesterday that is up to him to make appointments, suggesting some discomfort with Espinoza's comments.

Dancourt and Jimenez are also likely to occupy important posts in the administration. Dancourt has experience as a central bank official and is perceived as someone who has good technical credentials, which make him a good fit for president of the central bank's board. Humala has made a strong commitment to maintaining the autonomy of the central bank and is aware that higher inflation could undermine popular support for him. But he also seems to believe that the current president of the central bank's board, Julio Velarde, is too conservative. Felix Jimenez is a longtime Humala advisor with clearer leftist positions, but his background probably makes him a less likely candidate than Burneo to fill the post of minister of finance. Still, he will probably be appointed to a post in the ministry, where he would work with Burneo, possibly focusing on budget issues and the allocation of resources for Humala's social and industrial policies.

There is probably a higher risk that Humala's appointment to head the Ministry of Mines and Energy will have stronger nationalist views given his desire to increase taxes on mining and prioritize the domestic market in the supply of natural gas. Nonetheless, strategic decisions for the sector will probably be taken by his inner circle of advisors. Humala looks likely to pick one of three figures who are participating in the transition team: leftist former legislator Manuel Dammert, who has a track record of opposing privatizations and exports of natural gas; Humberto Campodonico, a leftist engineer and intellectual who is a longtime Humala advisor and has advocated supplying the domestic market first; and Herrera Descalzi, a former minister of mines and energy who joined the Humala campaign after the second round and is perceived as having more moderate views.

Relatively moderate figures predominate in Humala's inner circle of political advisors and strategists. His main political operator will probably be legislator Daniel Abugattas, who has developed close ties with Humala and who played a central role in the campaign. As a former businessman, he has relatively moderate policy views. There is speculation that he could become head of the Council of Ministers (a post also known as prime minister), whose role has varied in past administrations from a more political one-for example, as the point person for relations with congress-to one more focused on administrative coordination between the different ministries. But Humala may opt to keep Abugattas in congress, where he would lead efforts to advance the administration's legislative agenda, possibly as president of congress. Given Humala's lack of majority in congress, he will need a strong leader there. In that case, Humala could opt for someone with a more administrative profile for the post of prime minister, perhaps Ambassador Luis Chiquihuara, who is in charge of affairs related to this post in the transition team. Despite some speculation that Humala could appoint to the post respected independent lawyer Beatriz Merino, who was prime minister under Toledo and currently is head of the association of private pension companies, we see this as unlikely given Humala will probably pick someone with closer ties to him.

Another member of Humala's inner circle is Salomon Lerner, a businessman who has been one of his key strategists and point person with the business community. There is speculation that he could become the presidency's general secretary or even that he will not occupy a post in government, but he will probably continue to be an important advisor, even if an informal one. Finally, Humala's wife Nadine Heredia, who has played a role as a political advisor and strategist, will probably be a very influential figure. Early speculation that she could run in 2016 to succeed Humala indicates that she will be a key advisor and influential figure within his administration.

A gradual increase in spending

Humala will most likely announce during his first months in office some measures to implement key campaign promises that would lead to more spending, but he will seek to reassure voters and markets that this can be reconciled with responsible fiscal policy. Humala's advisors say that in order to meet their social and economic goals, the overall tax burden would have to increase by three or four percentage points of GDP, but spending will probably increase gradually. He will focus initially on expanding social programs that can have a significant social and political impact at a relatively low cost. The most important initiatives to be announced would be an expansion of existing cash transfer social programs, one which the largest is called Juntos, and the creation of a new, non-contributive pension benefit for the elderly called Pension 65. Humala's advisors estimated the cost of the new pension benefit at 0.8% of GDP and a substantial expansion of Juntos would probably cost much less (the program, which the previous Alan Garcia administration had already expanded substantially, currently benefits almost 500,000 families and its cost represents about 0.15% of GDP). Relatively strong economic growth-estimated to be somewhere between 5% and 6.5% this year and a bit lower in 2012-will help boost tax collection. So a Humala administration would probably have some fiscal room to increase spending without violating Peru's fiscal responsibility law which established a 1% of GDP cap on the public sector deficit, at least in the near term.

Humala will look to the mining sector as an additional source of revenue and will seek to expand the role of the state in other strategic sectors. While he has provided few details on specific measures, Humala has signaled that his administration will not seek to take over private assets. He has also hinted that he is moderating his views. For example, the policy document his campaign issued during the second-round campaign (called Hoja de Ruta, or roadmap) softened the wording about his plans to hike taxes on mining and says his administration will seek to keep the tax burden competitive. While the document maintains the position that the administration will renegotiate natural gas contracts to prioritize supply to the domestic market, Humala has signaled more moderation in fuel pricing policy. During the campaign he promised to lower the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), but now says that this will come over time as LPG is replaced with locally produced (and cheaper) natural gas.

Humala's approval ratings will probably decline during his first year in office

While Humala will most likely start his term with high popular support, his approval ratings look set to decline during his first year in office, something that could lead him to face some policy trade-offs relatively early in his administration. According to the latest Ipsos/Apoyo poll, 70% of respondents approve of Humala as president-elect, which is significantly higher than the 51.5% of votes he had in the second-round run-off. This is due in part to the good will that presidents-elect usually enjoy, but there is also much expectation that Humala will be able to deliver on his campaign promises. Fulfilling such expectation will be challenging given that it will involve addressing difficult structural issues. For example, according to the Ipsos/Apoyo poll, most voters believe Humala should focus primarily on fighting corruption and crime. While Humala will probably announce initiatives on both fronts, delivering results will take time. Given that corruption remains well-rooted in the Peruvian state, it would not be a surprise if some high-profile scandal emerges in the near term, and that would disappoint many voters who have overly optimistic expectations about Humala.

In addition, Humala could lose some support because of social conflicts. Such issues, which have typically involved local complaints against natural resources projects, are commonplace in Peru and sometimes turn violent, as occurred recently in the southern region of Puno, where locals protested against mining concessions. Humala will certainly make efforts to consult more with local communities and diminish conflicts, but resolving the underlying structural issues that motivate conflicts won't be easy, so new tensions are highly likely and could hurt Humala's approval ratings.

If trends seen during the last two administrations are any indication of the future, Humala could see a rapid decline in support. This happened under both Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia, who started with approval ratings above 60%, but saw them decline sharply during their first year in office (see graphs attached).

Support for Humala looks unlikely to drop as much as support for previous presidents, however. The popular measures he will announce in the beginning of his administration will help maintain support for him among the poor, who constitute his social base, and create a perception that he is pursuing change. From a structural perspective, economic improvements and the social programs of past administration could be slowly reducing popular dissatisfaction with the political class, which has been widespread in Peru. One possible indication that this is occurring is the fact that Alan Garcia's approval rating bottomed out at a higher level than Toledo's did. While Toledo's approval rating dipped below 10% in his third year in office, Garcia's lowest popularity was around 20%. It is important to note that both saw a recovery in their approval ratings toward the end of their terms.

Policy repercussions

This means that a decline in Humala's approval ratings probably wouldn't lead to a fundamental policy changes, but it would increase incentives for him to deepen his social and statist policies, contributing to a negative turn in economic policy. We have made the case that he will not be radical, but that he will push the limits on both macro and microeconomic policy when facing difficult trade-offs between maintaining macroeconomic stability and pursuing his goal of expanding the role of the state in the economy. If his approval rating drops, he will have a greater incentive to do so as a way to recover some political ground.

For macroeconomic policy, this means that Humala would pursue an increasingly expansive fiscal policy. He will expand social programs, invest more heavily in infrastructure, increase public sector wages, and seek a greater role for state-owned companies. He could, however, move more aggressively on all those fronts if needed to boost popular support. Humala probably wouldn't go as far as completely abandoning Peru's fiscal responsibility law as a reference for fiscal policy. But he could very well violate the 1% limit on deficit-it is important to remember that there is no severe penalty for doing so. He is unlikely to undermine the autonomy of the central bank, but if it tightens monetary policy enough to dampen economic growth, political pressure on the central bank and tension with the executive would increase.

Humala's sector specific policies could also take a more negative direction. For example, he would have a greater incentive to extract more rents from the mining sector to finance new spending. It would probably take at least a few months before his government has a tax proposal ready to send to congress, so Humala's declining approval rating would increase the risk that he will opt for an aggressive tax hike. His weaker political standing could force him to make some concessions in order to win congressional approval for the proposal given that he will need support for centrist parties. However, this could increase the risk that he will take a tough position in talks with companies who have tax stabilization agreements as he seek to renegotiate the terms of these contracts (they represent about 25% of Peru's mining production). Humala could also take a tough position on negotiations with natural gas producers to redraft existing contracts and prioritize supply to the domestic market, and more actively seek to develop the state's capacity to operate in the hydrocarbons sector.

1) The FT launched its new service, FT Tilt, to cover emerging markets a few months back.

2) Your humble scribe joined up and found a few items and/or posts interesting enough without ever getting wildly enthused.

3) After a while FT Tilt's main "professional" serive went behind a paywall and asked me (and all other users for certain) to pay for access.

4) Your humble scribe let his free-until-then trial sub drop, cheap as he is (as are most other interwebnetpipes users when it comes to paying for news and current affairs)

5) Your author receives this mail from the guys at FT Tilt this morning:

Give FT Tilt another look - You've been upgraded back to Professional status

Dear Otto,

It's been six months since we launched FT Tilt and we already have over 3,300 members coming to us for emerging markets financial news and analysis that they simply aren't finding elsewhere. I wanted to let you know that we will be upgrading your status back to pro-member for a summer trial. This means you will have full access to all Tilt content for a limited time. Our product and coverage has only gotten stronger and we hope you'll give us another look.

You can simply login at http://tilt.ft.com with your original username and password. If you have any questions or problems logging in, please let me know. Also, to find out about Tilt in a fancier, more colorful format, you can check out our brochure by clicking the link: http://goo.gl/E3JX5

We will be sending out an editorial highlight email as well to our overall membership so apologies in advance for multiple emails. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback and enjoy your full trial access!

Best,

Ranjan RoyCommercial Director - FT Tilt

(212) 6XX-XXXXranjan.roy AT fttilt.comhttp://tilt.ft.com

I have nothing against FT Tilt and the thing it offers, though I do feel obliged to comment that when it came to LatAm during my trial period I wasn't that bowled over with coverage (Brazil data was quite good, the rest was between thin and zero). But yet again the evidence of how paywalls don't work on the internet is plain here because in a different set-up, 3300 paying subscribers would be a good moneyspinner, but for a company under the auspices of FT it's 1) small beer and 2) extremely unlikely to cover the costs of running a service with a bunch of professional journalists running the show.

Market it how they want, but putting me back on a free subscription for a limited period is an attempt to prop up a failing business model. I pass guys, with the greatest of respect for the reporters doing the gruntwork, because it's high time the world's established media companies approached the internet on the internet's terms and not on the agenda they wish to impose.

Some scams are more subtle and some are easier to spot, so let's make sure we understand each other on today's post before we get started. Portage Resources (POTG.pk) is in Category Two and one of the most blatant rip-offs I've seen in 2011

I've been watching with amusement the pump and dump scam that is running around Portage Resources (POTG.pk) this last week, with plenty of bullshit in the paid tout press and it seems there's more than enough money left in the supposedly cash-strapped America to see this company move to frankly ridiculous valuations.

POTG.pk now quotes at 74c a pop and when we recall that the company has 637 million shares outstanding (yeah dudes I shit thee not, and to make matters worse 75% of those shares are in the hands of the delinquent piece of toadcrap and company CEO Paul Luna) this means that the company is being valued at $471m right now. So what do you get for your money, folks? You get:

A letter of intent (i.e. not even a real asset and not even a contract to option in on a real asset, but a piece of paper that says the company intends to do a deal...nothing else) on a property in the politically impossible-to-mine North reaches of Peru.

A bullshit resource that has nothing to do with reality of 58m oz silver, but even if it had you're now valuing those ounces at $9 each, a mile above anything in the serious market, even amongst companies that are producing silver today.

A CEO who really is a piece of shit lying scumbag, of that be in no doubt.

A company with five hundred and thirty-three dollars in the treasury as per its last quarterly report. Doesn't that strike you as a little thin for a junior that the market is valuing at half a billion (with a B)?

The incessant pumping of boilerhouse scumbags who have a track record of separating the naive from their wedge. Have a look here andhere for more.

The problem is that it's really difficult so far to get a lend on this thing and short it. If you can, do so, because it's the easiest money you'll make this year. Be clear that POTG.pk is being run to benefit insiders only, they're screwing thousands of people over right now and will leave the arena with your money in their pockets if you're daft enough to invest in this scam.

We featured the strong run-up in coffee prices a couple of times in the recent past, so it's only fair to bring out the chart one more time to register the recent retrace as we're now 15% off the peak.

Monday, June 27, 2011

News today from the fabbo new integrated stock market system of Chile, Colombia and Peru, which has been created to let the three countries trade listed stocks between each other. It's also been fanfared with all sorts of fanfarey sounds ever since it was first mooted last year, has gone through exhaustive tests and then last month finally went live. So let's see how it's been getting on, via this translation of this story in Semana Economica:

MILA Transactions U$1m In First Four Weeks

27 June 2011

Today marks the first four weeks and one day since the start of the Integrated Latin American Market (Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano (MILA)), a system that brings together the trading platforms of Chile, Peru and Colombia, and the result of the first 20 trading day show few transactions during the Peru election period and high volatility in the Chilean market, reports newspaper El Mercurio.

According to the Chilean media source, the average daily volume of MILA is 12 million Chilean Pesos (U$25,310), which is 0.01% of trades conducted in the stock markets of Chile, Peru and Colombia. In total, U$1m has been traded on MILA, mostly from Colombian buyers in the Chilean market.

...so here's part of the script from yesterday's IKN Weekly issue 112 that contains a few facts.

The Puno protests: Trying to make head and tail of the situation

This is one of those situations that I’m unhappy to have called well, on a social level at least. On an investment level we may have been handed our ultra-bargain entry point (see the first part of ‘Market Watching’). As for the events in the Puno region this week, yes it’s ended in bloodshed because it was always going to end in bloodshed because that’s how Peru works (or doesn’t work, depending on your point of view). But what we also have is a growing protest that’s being badly reported in the English language by nearly all those who have decided to spill ink on the subject. That bad reporting has sometimes been deliberate and sometimes through simple innocent ignorance, but it’s not getting what’s actually going on in the Puno region of southern Peru very well. Here we’re going to try and remedy things with a basic roadmap.

The basic point to understand is that the protests that have captured headlines recently aren’t one protest but three. They are somewhat connected, because the second and then the third sprung up when those unhappy parties saw the success that the first group was getting, but when it comes to specific issues and demands there are three protests happening.

1) The Santa Ana Protest (for want of a better name). This is the one at the South end of the Lake Titicaca area that has blocked the border crossings between Peru and Bolivia. The first protest to happen, it’s also the one that captured all the headlines three or four weeks ago and is the one we started covering first way back in IKN104 (and virtually all editions since then).

2) The Carabaya/Inambari Protest: This one started up a couple of weeks after the Santa Ana protest began to catch headlines and concerns the area called Carabaya, which is up on the way to the Andean peaks Northwest of Lake Titicaca and centres around the town of Macusani. Although protests did mention local mining concessions as a secondary cause, the main reason for the roadblocks and strikes was the plan to build a very large hydroelectric power station in the Inambari valley area on the Amazon basin side of the same mountain range. The plan has now been scrapped.

3) The Azángaro/Juliaca Airport Protest: This is the most recent protest and came to a head this Friday with the deaths of five protesters at Juliaca airport, the only airport in the region that can take modern passenger planes from Lima. This protest was run by people from a town near to Juliaca called Azángaro, to the North of Lake Titicaca, and its mission was to stop the contamination of the Ramis River that runs from the environmental disaster area of the Rinconada informal mining zone up in the mountains and dumps pollution all along the run of the river and into Lake Titicaca itself (it’s ‘herself’ in fact, but that’s another story).

Now as mentioned previously there’s clearly a relationship between the three protests, as it would be more than strange to think that after years of relative tranquility, suddenly three protests spring up separately in the same area without any sort of connection. But in fact the connections are indirect and more about the second group seeing that the first group is getting results, then moving to make their own point (then the third group doing the same). As for the reasons behind the bloodshed in the third protest instead of the first two, that’s more about the individual circumstances of each blockade. In the first one, the Aymara indigenous protesting had a very strong leverage point against the government thanks to the geography of the area and the border crossing to Bolivia. That crossing carries a lot of trade between the two countries and is also relatively inaccessible (except for the blocked road itself), which means that control of the leverage point is easy to maintain. The second protest in the Carabaya region was more pacific (there were a couple of isolated incidents against junior mining warehouses run by SUR.v and YEL.v, nothing really bad however) but the locals are isolated there and they also have a decent bargaining chip; they can block the brand new Interoceanic road that runs between Peru and Brazil.

So to the third group from Azángaro, enthused by the positive results obtained by protest one and protest two, wanted to make their point and stop their river from being polluted so heavily. They had less obvious leverage with no key roads nearby and no economic target to pressure, so they decided to move on a communication point that’s heavily defended by forces of order and also easily approached from multiple directions, Juliaca Airport. Therefore when the protest tried to take over the airport, not only were police and military already installed but they also have specific orders and regulations that allow them to shoot to kill under exceptional circumstances if the airport comes under attack. Five deaths from gunshot wounds to heads and chests (instead of using rubber bullets or aiming at legs first) as well as 30 wounded by police shooting into crowds may be brutal, but it’s also legal under the circumstances and according to the law of the land (it’s up to you to decide whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not my brother’s keeper on these things). What we do know is that this morning, the government of Peru published executive orders (15) that give environmental protection to the rivers that were the centre of the Azángaro people’s protest.

And as is usual for the PAAS there are no work stoppages, no inquiries, no announcements in the press about the fatal accidents. The only place to find out about the PAAS deaths is at the right page buried in the centre of the Peru Mining Ministry website and it's only there because PAAS is obliged by law to pass the information along.

So spare a thought for Ronald Edson Comun Espinoza who was working as a contractor at Pan American Silver's Huaron mine. And spare another thought for Santos Martin Solano Salvador, who was a full-time employee at Pan American Silver's Quiruvilca mine. Because they're both dead now.

As placards and marches have done no good, a group of women in the town of Barbacoas (Nariño) have decided to run a protest they have called "Crossed Legs Strike" to change the attitude of indifference of the town's men about the state of the only road that connects them to the rest of Colombia

The protest, that started Wednesday, consists in not having sexual relations with their husbands or permanent partners in this locality in the coast of Nariño province, where the population lives via mining, fishery and agriculture.

Maribel Silva, a judge in Barbacoas and promoter of the protest, said, "We feel forced to call to attention to the region's men the general situation of submission that they have assumed in Barbacoas, and also to protest to the government for better attention for the difficult social situation in which we live".

She said that the abstinence from sex is looking to force their men to speak out and define a limit date for the start of paving works for the section of the road between Junín and Barbacoas.

This road has taken many lives. We have been witness over the years to the enormous needs that our municipality has and the grave lack of development where we live", Silva said.

The National Institute of Roads (Invías) last year authorized the work to the Nº 3 Batallion of Engineers, to whom they gave a limit date of July 1st 2011 to start the work, but the protesters say that in the last meeting they said they were waiting to receive orders, that tenders had to be opened and studies done. "Therefore we know that it's not going to happen because the machinery or the workforce hasn't even arrived yet," added Silva.

According to Colombia Quiñónez, one of the women leading the protest, "We cannot say until when the women of Barbacoas will stay with their legs crossed, but we will do so until we are given a guarantee that the work will happen."

And the judge added that the town's men have already adopted a different attitude and now say that "a hunger strike is preferable to a sex strike."

UPDATE 3-Peru protests turn deadly as govt halts mine project

....that will be backed up by the official announcement in Peru's lawmaking gazette El Peruano tomorrow morning, let's just check back at the brief note in IKN11 last Sunday for subscribers:

Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v): Still watchingNo buy decision made on Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) as yet, basically because I think the market is still buying into the company story that Santa Ana has a decent chance of making it into operation. It hasn’t. So once the false optimism wears off, I’m expecting BCM.v to give me a better entry point than anything seen last week, preferably sub $5.

This was a brief note, but part of an ongoing series on BCM.v at Santa Ana. The call has always been that the project was in serious trouble, by the way. We also forecast bloodshed and loss of lives, also sadly realized today with four deaths as anti-mining protesters in the Puno region tried to take over the local airport at Juliaca.

UPDATE: Local news reports several vehicles on fire at the airport, thick smoke blanketing the area and now deaths are up to five make that six.

In this linked post on Monday, IKN alerted you the the Allied American Steel (AAST.ob) bullshit criminal scam run by the worst sort of scumballs (yeah, even worse than Wistar Holt, who's only trying to rip off goldbugs and therefore has mitigation on his side). So that was Monday and today is Friday so let's check in on the price chart development:

Oh looky, 50% down in one trading week. We'll leave the in-depth comment to Owly on this one, methinks:

And so just a few minutes ago, Golden Minerals (AUMN) and ECU Silver (ECU.to) announced they were merging. Here's the NR and the key phrase here is "a merger of equals". Gotta agree with that, at least on a managerial basis, as both companies are pisspoor mining operators as the Apex Silver debacle shows on one side and the serial losses of ECU.to show on the other. Also, the way overinflated top managers' salaries at both companies are equally shareholder unfriendly.

Both stocks are trading significantly lower on the news, too. The likely explanation for this is 1) idiot rahrah brigade at ECU.to are looking at AUMN and thinking they're getting diluted and 2) the slightly more sophisticated AUMN fans knowing full well they're getting led up the garden path on this one. DYODD.

UPDATE: More on "a merger of equals":

Yup, equally crappy share price performance this year. This deal makes more sense by the minute.

I'm sticking to my theory that, unlike market or currency driven whizzos like copper, silver, gold or what have you, the market for zinc is a fair reflection of the real state of the world economy and its recovery since late'08.

So you have a protest in Huancayo in provincial Peru, with people demanding that once and for all the government stops lying to them and makes good on its promise to equip the city with a university.

Nobody listens

So the people protest once again, march through the streets pacifically, do all the demonstration type things.

Nobody listens

So the students demanding a place to educate themselves without travelling oodles of kilometres block a road yesterday morning. And HOORAY! finally somebody listens. The people that finally pay attention are the police who beat the shit out of them, three people are left dead and if journalists dare to photograph them or take video evidence of a dozen police officers battering a single student with their batons the cameras are stolen from them and the reporter videoing the scene is whacked about the head and body too.

Welcome to the bit of Peru that doesn't involve tours of Machu Picchu, five star hotels and buffet breakfasts with English speaking guide. Hat tip the evergood Huanca York Times.

For your general edification and entertainment, let's catch up on how the Marin Katusa / Casey Research led scam pump East West Resources (EW.v) has been doing. We've featured it on a number of occasions at this humble corner of cyberspace (here and here tend to be ongoing popular posts) but today we're homing in on Executive Chairman David Sidoo's contribution to the cause...which so far has basically been throwing his own money down the Katusa Krush™ black hole:

(click to enlarge with sharper focus too)

It's incredible to think that installing afailed restauranteuras head guy of an Oil & Gas junior hasn't paid off so far...can't think why that should be. Hey David, you know this old joke?

Completion of the prefeasibility study is expected by the end of July 2011 and AMEC Americas Limited, an independent supplier of engineering and project management services, is concurrently preparing a National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report. Upon receipt of the technical report, NovaGold will announce the results and file it on SEDAR and EDGAR within 45 days of the announcement.

The partners have approved a $30.5-million budget to carry out further work on the Project during the remainder of 2011. Planned work includes infill drilling to convert inferred mineral resources to measured and indicated categories, geotechnical drilling on the tunnel alignment and geotechnical drilling to confirm open pit slopes in areas targeted for conversion of inferred mineral resources. GCMC will also complete further environmental and engineering work in preparation for feasibility level studies.

"Completion of the prefeasibility study will be an important milestone as we work with Teck to optimize the Galore Creek project," said Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, President and CEO of NovaGold. "Galore Creek is one of the most significant copper-gold projects in the world. Its timely development is important for all stakeholders, including Federal and Provincial governments as well as First Nation communities of northwestern British Columbia."

During the second quarter of 2011, Teck completed its funding requirements of $373 million to earn its 50% interest in GCMC. The Project will move forward with Teck and NovaGold equally funding further Project development.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - 06/23/11) - We cool dudes at NadaGold Resources Inc. (TSX:NG - News)(AMEX:NG - News) want to remind you all about what's happening at Galore Creek, because since the Kaplan guys sold oodles of shares earlier this year the stock is down about $5 to $9. So anyway, remember Galore Creek? Yeah that's right, the project we brought on board back in 2003 is now aggressively moving to a pre-feas stage! Wowsers, nobody can ever accuse us of dragging our heels, can they? Well in fact that's a bit wrong, because back in 2006 we already had a Full Bankable Feasibility Study done on Galore Creek that put the capex at U$1.8Bn....but then things got a bit smelly and we found out that the real cost of capex would be up to U$5Bn (yeah, five billion dollars) and so our JV partner Teck told us where we could stick our plans. So anyway, here we are nearly four freakin' years later and the new SparklySpangly Pre-Feas is nearly ready and we sure hope that you fall for our smoke'n'mirror exercise one more time, because so far you New York based sheep have been great to us.

Oh, and by the way, Teck has fulfilled its payment obligations on the JV now and so from today there's no more free ride on Galore Creek and we're going to have to burn your money on this dog that will never be a mine, new power line through the joint or not.

Love and Kisses, Rick!

UPDATE: Message to Ian Bezek: "Widely respected?" You gotta be kidding dude...that's the last thing we'd want to be known as round these parts.

Oh well, at least the short-term market spin and opportunism is blindly obvious, we can see it for what it is and therefore it's unlikely to last. DYODD dude, and don't worry too much about fliptrading if you're an investor.

PS: I've already been quizzed twice, so let's put the info here. HDP is a Spanish acronym. H = hijo, D = of and P= an age-old service industry profession proffered to the world mainly by women.

...the year to date performance of the 52 licensed Mutual Funds in Peru:

click to enlarge and see the names better

The ones on the left with the tiny amount of green tend to be the passive type or money market funds. Meanwhile, anything with an exposure to Peru's stock market is getting a nasty case of capitalist reality. For context, Peru's BVL bourse is the world 4th worst performer this year, or so says the article here in Gestion that has all the above data.

Today sees the big anti-drug meeting in Guatemala called "The International Conference for Strategic Security Support in Central America" (Conferencia Internacional de Apoyo a la Estrategia de Seguridad en Centroamérica) which includes all the local bigwigs of all countries, Presidents, Defence and Interior Ministers etc etc. When it was President Santos's turn to speak in the day's keynote address, he said this (translated):

"Their [the narcotraffickers] capacity for corruption goes far beyond what we can imagine. I assure you, and forgive me for being so frank, that here in this meeting there are many people on the narcotraffickers' payrolls and who are informing the narcos what's happening here in real time."

Damn, I like it when politicos drop the bullshit and tell it how it is.

Press Release

Release Date: June 22, 2011

For immediate release

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April indicates that the economic recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, though somewhat more slowly than the Committee had expected. Also, recent labor market indicators have been weaker than anticipated. The slower pace of the recovery reflects in part factors that are likely to be temporary, including the damping effect of higher food and energy prices on consumer purchasing power and spending as well as supply chain disruptions associated with the tragic events in Japan. Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand. However, investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector continues to be depressed. Inflation has picked up in recent months, mainly reflecting higher prices for some commodities and imported goods, as well as the recent supply chain disruptions. However, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The unemployment rate remains elevated; however, the Committee expects the pace of recovery to pick up over coming quarters and the unemployment rate to resume its gradual decline toward levels that the Committee judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Inflation has moved up recently, but the Committee anticipates that inflation will subside to levels at or below those consistent with the Committee's dual mandate as the effects of past energy and other commodity price increases dissipate. However, the Committee will continue to pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations.

To promote the ongoing economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent. The Committee continues to anticipate that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period. The Committee will complete its purchases of $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of this month and will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings. The Committee will regularly review the size and composition of its securities holdings and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate.

The Committee will monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and will act as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability.